Fighting Greed Makes for Great Theatre and Film

Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People was first performed in Norway in 1883. Since then, countless people throughout the world have seen it. A new production starring Succession's Jeremy Strong and The Sopranos' Michael Imperioli recently came to Broadway. The play received great reviews and was mentioned for its relevance to current times.

It is winter in this small Norwegian town known for its summer season when its renowned medicinal spa opens, but for the fact that Dr. Stockman discovered the waters were contaminated with potentially lethal toxins from upstream tanneries. The doctor naively assumed the townfolk would support the shutdown of the spa until repairs were made. Following a contentious town hall, citizens unanimously voted to obliterate Stockman's lab findings. Without the spa, the town would fall into financial ruin. The revered doctor becomes an enemy of the people. He and his family are attacked, their home is invaded, and his position as a doctor is taken away.

In the last moments of the play, Dr. Stockman is asked, "What will happen?" He responds, "I don't know. But remember now, everybody: You are fighting for the truth, and that's why you are alone. And that makes you strong—we're the strongest people in the world. And the strong must learn to be lonely."

From An Enemy of the People to Dark Waters

Courageous and lonely individuals over the next hundred-plus years experienced in real time the fictional Doctor Stockman's bleak reality that greed and its consequent dangers are more compelling than the truth. Greed is "an excessive and insatiable desire....for more money, power, and things."

One such brave person is Robert Billot, played by Mark Ruffalo in the movie Dark Waters, about his 20-year struggle to hold DuPont responsible for the 50 years of knowingly polluting the groundwater in Parkersburg, West Virginia. In 1999, Billot, a corporate defense attorney, at the request of a family member, looked into the deaths of 190 cows belonging to a farmer whose property abutted a dumping area of DuPont.

DuPont withheld information that the groundwater was polluted by "forever chemicals" caused by the manufacturing of Teflon products best known for their nonstick surface, which brought DuPont a billion dollars of revenue each year—forever meant that all living things could not break these manufactured chemicals down to excrete them. DuPont's power in the Parkersburg community silenced the local population despite the occurrence of miscarriages, deformities, and cancer amongst its population. Billot refused to back down at the cost of his health and family life.

Eventually, the townspeople gave blood samples to look for disease markers and the presence of PFOA, a "forever chemical." Due to Robert Billot's dogged persistence, most of these chemicals are no longer used in manufacturing; they remain in 98 percent of humans. In April 2024, the E.P.A. announced it would require municipal water systems to remove six "forever chemicals" from tap water.

Why so long? Why did the wheels of justice work so slowly in the face of apparent sickness and death caused by DuPont's greed?

Greed has always existed. Its presence affects all areas of life: friendships, partnerships, and corporate oversight through the legal protections afforded corporations and backed by the Roberts Supreme Court. Human character, of course, plays a role. Ignorance, fear, and lack of empathy contribute to greed's success and the increased vulnerability of our natural resources and all living things.